I have always wondered about the origin of my family's surname "Kubata". I come from Uckrain, where my surname souded always strange. My mother told that, in fact, it originated from a longer surname, which unfortunately she never remebered, since she heard it many years ago.
It seems it was shortened after, maybe more than a century ago, a certain part of my family migrated from the german lands, which I don't know.
The change was made more for comodity than anything else.
If someone could help, they would solve a life of wondering what it means.